Worst gaming devices in history

There have been many consoles released over the years, and in the earlier days of the industry it wasn’t the simple trichotomous affair we have today. Some were prosperous and successful, and others… not so much.

Below is a compilation of the worst gaming hardware lifespans in history. This list contains any hardware that was meant to play games.

Amstrad GX4000 and Amstrad CPC+ range

Released: 1990
Units Sold: 15,000
Discontinued: 1991

The Amstrad GX4000 and game controller. A video game console released in Europe in 1990.

The year is 1990, and video games are booming, so everyone is trying to enter the console market.

The AMstrad GX4000, launched in September 1990, was an 8-bit cartridge based console – for its time is was a great console, producing good graphics and sound, and following the success of the Amstrad CPC, the company hoped for history to repeat itself.

Unfortunately the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) was set to release in PAL territories a few months later, in November 1990. The 16-bit console was superior in every way, and the Amstrad GX4000 couldn’t keep up with the Mega Drive.

With just over thirty games released for the GX4000, the failure of Amstrad’s console and its discontinuation in 1991 also ended their involvement in the gaming industry

Nintendo 64DD

Released: 1999
Units Sold: 15,000
Discontinued: 2000

The Nintendo 64DD, connected beneath the N64.

The Nintendo 64DD (Disk Drive, or Dynamic Drive) was a peripheral for the Nintendo 64 console. It plugged into the underside of the Nintendo 64 and allowed it to play 64MB Magneto-Optical disks. This meant larger data storage for more advanced games.

The 64DD was announced before the launch of the N64 in 1996, but its development dragged on for years, and it was only launched in Japan in December 1999 when the technology was practically obsolete.

The 64DD was never released in the west, and it lasted less than a year before Nintendo discontinued it in August 2000. It only sold 15,000 units and Nintendo had to scrap 85,000 unsold units.

Nokia N-Gage

Released: 2003
Units Sold: 3 Million
Discontinued: 2005

Nokia N-Gage

Nokia decided in October 2003 to (somewhat prophetically) merge the mobile world with the gaming world, and released the Nokia N-Gage.

The system would use cartridge-based storage for games, making them swappable, similar to what is used on the PSVita and Nintendo 3DS.

The system was mocked for its strange looking design, and sales were so poor that they dropped the price by $100 after a week of release.

The device received complaints from users about many issues. Some of these complaints were about how users would use the phone to call, saying that it was extremely uncomfortable.

Nokia N-Gage QD

Nokia then released a redesigned model in May 2004 – the N-Gage QD. This model was meant to solve the design issues, but it too failed.

According to the New York Times, The Nokia N-Gage line only managed just over 2 million units sold, half of its projected sales of 6 million, before being discontinued in 2005.

The Philips CD-i

Released: 1991
Units Sold: 57,000
Discontinued: 1998

A Philips CDi console, branded as a Magnavox, with controller

Philips entered the console gaming market in 1991 – well, they tried. The CD-i was a Compact Disc-Interactive-Console, designed to not only be a game console but also a multimedia device that played video files too.

Costing a whopping $700 back in 1991, it was intended to be an add-on for the Super Nintendo, but the deal with Nintendo fell through.

Nintendo was legal-wrangled into giving Philips the rights to use their characters, and some of the most awful games in history were created based on the Zelda universe, followed by a Mario game.

Philips cut production of the CD-i in 1998. Reliable sales figures are sketchy, with claims between 570,00 sold in 7 years, to Philips’ own claim of 1 million sold. Only 133 games developed.

Other than the Nokia N-Gage, I have never actually seen these products. Have you ever owned a console or other gaming hardware that has failed (or you think will fail)? Let us know in the comments below!